The cost of 22 Flashlights with batteries from the Quill Corporation is $240, including shipping and <a target="new" href="http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm" onclick="g_openWindow('http://www.donorschoose.org/html/fulfillment.htm', 300, 800, 'fulfillwindow');return false;">fulfillment</a>.
I am a general first grade teacher at P.S. 72 in East New York, Brooklyn, NY. Our school is a Title 1 school and approximately 91% of our students are entitled to receive free lunch. As an experienced teacher, I am constantly thinking of new ways to develop a positive learning environment. A large part of my curriculum has been devoted to encouraging independent reading, group read-aloud, and collaborative/active learning approaches to reading. My primary concern is to create a visual hands-on environment where students are inspired and motivated to read. Many of my 1st graders this year are becoming very confident readers, while others need more practice. As part of our shared reading period, students share a flashlight to highlight words that we are reading. This tool encourages the students, even the hesitant students, to come up to the front of the room to read. The other students are able to follow and read along with their peers.
I would like to expand this concept with independent reading. Students would be attentive to their independent reading using their own small flashlights. The dimly lit room encourages calmness and enables students to focus. As a mandate, students are required to read at least 25 books during the school year. We have gone beyond that goal but would love to have students read 100 or more. The added excitment of using a flashlight will help each child enter their own private world of reading. I will be able to walk through the room observing the reading strategies used by students.
The use of indivual flashights, with a supply of batteries, will make the reading experience a tangible one. This tool would be excellent for students during the instructional time that is devoted to independent reading. Students will be encouraged to write book reports, reviews, skits based on their readings, which in turn would be shared with the class.
DonorsChoose is the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.
As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. K. and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.